“But Rockefeller has also reached out to the industry for help drafting upcoming legislation to promote ways to harness coal’s energy without releasing so much carbon dioxide.“
We mine carbon for the express purpose of combining it with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide. It is not some accidental byproduct nor incidental “pollution” – it is what we specifically set out to make. The purpose of so doing is to recover some of the energy bound to the carbon when split from oxygen through photosynthesis, powered by solar energy. In effect coal is the solar battery sought as the Holy Grail of the solar industry. Guess what? You’re too late. Nature beat you by millions of years and stored concentrated solar power for us to use in this oh-so-convenient form. And green plants are delighted to get access to this carbon dioxide we are returning to the atmosphere so they may start recharging Earth’s solar batteries all over again.
Coal is concentrated solar power and atmospheric carbon dioxide is really good for the biosphere. Get over it.
U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller believes that pressing ahead on mine safety and miners’ health can advance the debate over the future of coal, and he wants the industry to abandon what he considers a combative and close-minded approach to that discussion, the West Virginia Democrat told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
The state’s senior senator said industry leaders and their political allies have focused on President Obama and his U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the exclusion of the other forces sapping demand for this fossil fuel.
One good way to reduce coal usage (and CO2 production) is to invest in more R and D for higher efficiency generators…